House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan is closing the door — again — on a run for president in 2012.
Ryan, a Wisconsin GOP congressman, has been reconsidering his decision not to make a run for the White House. But in a statement released by his campaign on Monday, he said that’s no longer the case. (ALSO ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL: Ron Paul rakes in $1.8 million in weekend money bomb)
“While humbled by the encouragement, I have not changed my mind,” Ryan said, “and therefore I am not seeking our party’s nomination for President.”
Continuing, Ryan said: “I remain hopeful that our party will nominate a candidate committed to a pro-growth agenda of reform that restores the promise and prosperity of our exceptional nation.”
Last week, The Weekly Standard’s Stephen F. Hayes reported that Ryan was vacationing in Colorado discussing with his family the possibility of a run. And Karl Rove, who served as deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush, said he thought Ryan was taking the prospect seriously.
Among those disappointed at Ryan’s decision are the Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, who has called on Ryan to get in the race. On his blog Monday, Kristol wrote: “If I had more dramatic flair, I’d announce that I’ll be in seclusion for a while, grimly pondering the Republican future while re-reading the great Yeats poem, ‘To a Friend whose Work has Come to Nothing.’”